Category Archives: Cakes

After eating an apple pie recently I got the idea of turning the filling into a cake, but instead of putting the filling into the batter of the cake I wanted to use it as the filling between cake layers. For the cake batter I wanted to ensure that the apple was evident, but not the only key feature in the cake. Additionally, I wanted to cake to feature flavors that complement the apple, thus incorporating brown sugar, caramel essence, ginger and of course apples best friend…cinnamon. Think carrot cake or banana cake texture and flavors, but without the carrot and banana.To keep the apple pie mix intact and in the middle of the cake layers I opted for a cream cheese frosting for the layers and outside of the cake, again featuring the caramel flavor.

The outcome is a delectable spiced apple cake that is rich in apple pie inspired flavor layers as well as caramel cheesecake-ish frosted layers.

Ingredients:

Cake:

170g brown sugar

2 eggs

100ml vegetable oil

50ml butter, melted

420g apples, peeled and grated (240g grated apple)

220ml self-rising flour

1 tsn of bi- carbonate soda

1 tsn ground cinnamon

1 tsn ground ginger

60g almond meal

1 lemon (zest of whole lemon)

Apple Filling:

55g brown sugar

½ tsn ground cinnamon

30g butter

180ml water

260g apples, peeled and diced (175g diced apple)

Syrup:

30ml brandy

30ml lemon juice

80g brown sugar

Icing:

80g butter

100g white chocolate

250g cream cheese

120g vanilla flavored yoghurt

1 tsn salted caramel essence

30g icing sugar

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 175c degrees and line 3 x 25cm cake tins with baking paper.

Using your kitchen aid (electric beaters) beat the sugar and eggs for 5 minutes or until fluffy and pale.

Add the melted butter and oil to the bowl, pouring while the beaters run.

Stop the mixer and remove the bowl.

Add the apple and sift in the flour, spices, salt, soda and almond meal.

Carefully fold the ingredients together until just combine.

Pour the mix evenly into the 3 tins and place in the oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Leave the cakes on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, to make the filling place the butter, sugar, cinnamon and water into a saucepan and heat on high until boiling.

Add the apples and cook on high for 10 minutes until the syrup thickens and the apple is soft but still holds it’s shape.

Place the mix into a bowl and leave aside to cool.

Place the syrup ingredients into a new bowl and heat in the microwave until boiling, stir until silky smooth in texture.

Using a pastry brush, brush the syrup onto the top of the 3 cakes.

Next make the icing by melting the butter in a medium sized bowl in the microwave until bubbling. Add the white chocolate piece and stir until smooth.

Add the cream cheese, yoghurt and essence into the butter mix and using electric beaters whisk until smooth and silky. Place in the fridge to set.

To put the cake together place one cake layer on a plate syrup side up, top with ¼ icing, then ½ of the apple filling over the top of the icing.

Top with the second cake layer syrup side up, top with ¼ icing, then the remaining apple filling over the top of the icing.

Top with 3rd cake layer syrup side down and ice the top and the sides of the cake with the remaining icing.

To decorate I have topped with dried apple slices and caramel sauce.

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This cake is not ground breaking with distinctively bizarre textures or flavor combos. However, it has been purposely created to bring to live Cadbury’s Old Jamaican Rum N’ Raisin chocolate block into cake form.

To hero the chocolate I have used Cadbury’s Old Gold dark chocolate, for the Rum a popular Jamaican brand and for the raisins I ensured lots and lots of rum was absorbed in them for little flavor bombs.

Ingredients:

Cake:

180g butter

300g caster sugar

2 tsn vanilla essence

3 eggs

170g self-raising flour

65g plain flour

85g cocoa powder

1/2 tsn bicarbonate of soda

2 tsn instant espresso coffee granules

80ml water

85ml milk

Rum syrup:

110g raisins

140g Jamaican rum

80g sugar

Mousse:

200g dark chocolate

40ml reserved syrup

2/3 cup thickened cream

1 tsn gelatin

65g icing sugar

Ganache:

100g dark chocolate

100ml thickened cream

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 25cm round cake tin with baking paper.

Using electric beaters beat the butter, sugar and essence for 5 mins or until it is light and fluffy.

Add in the eggs one at a time and ensure you beat thoroughly between each addition.

Sift in the flours, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl, mix.

Add the coffee granules to the water, then add the milk, stir.

Add the flour mix and coffee mix into the butter mix and fold until combine.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Once cooked leave the cake in the tin for 5 mins, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool.

Meanwhile make the rum and raisin mix by placing the raisins, rum and sugar into a saucepan and stirring over a simmering heat for 5 minutes.

Drain raisins (reserving the syrup for later) and chop up the raisins.

Make the mousse by placing 1/3rd cup cream on a bowl and microwaving for 1 minute or until simmering, remove from the microwave and add the chocolate. Allow to sit for 1 minute then stir until smooth.

Add 40g of the reserved rum syrup to the chocolate mix, stir then set aside to cool.

Add the gelatin to the water and stir until well combined with no lumps.

Ok so the flavor pairings for this cake is not ground breaking. Raspberry, apple and vanilla has no real ‘wow interesting twist factor’.

How this cake made it to my website….? Due to it being absolutely delectably delicious, as well as the unusual way the cake is constructed. The main feature of this cake is not the flavor pairings but the layers of batter and apple that structure the cake. Every bite has an ever-so-tasty yoghurt based cake with the twist of sliced apple layered texture.

This cake is a must with a cup of tea, in fact I dare you to find another cake that satisfies your cake craving more when paired with a cup of tea at 3pm!

Ingredients:

Cake:

125g butter

180g sugar + 1 tbsn extra

1 tsn vanilla essence

4 eggs

90g raspberry yoghurt

170g self-raising flour

2 large apples (260g apple)

180g raspberries

Topping:

100g raspberries

40ml condensed milk

20ml thickened cream

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.

Place the butter and sugar into a bowl and using electric beaters whisk the mix for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla essence and whisk until combine.

Add the eggs, one at a time beating, in between each addition.

Add the yoghurt and beat until combine.

Add the flour and beat on low until just combine.

Peel the apples with a fruit peeler.

Using a hand slicer mandolin cut the apple into thin slices.

Add the raspberries to the mix and carefully stir through.

Add half the cake batter into the tin and flatten the top with a spoon.

Add half the apple slices in a fan pattern.

Add the remaining batter and flatten the top with the back of the spoon.

Add the remaining apple slices in a fan pattern.

Sprinkle the extra 1tbsn sugar over the apple slices. Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Place the cake onto a cake rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile to make the raspberry sauce, place the raspberries into a saucepan with the condensed milk.

On a high heat stir until the raspberries have disintegrated.

Pour the sauce through a sieve to remove the seeds.

Pour the sauce over the cake.

Pour the thickened cream over the cake and enjoy!

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To reignite this baking lollie twist I decided to start looking at chocolate lollies and incorporating these in my recipes.
One of the chocolate types I thought would be interesting and not commonly consumed was Pascall’s Clinkers.

Chocolate covered candy with a surprise of either pineapple, lime or strawberry in the middle…yum!

I have opted for a cheesecake in this instance as chunks of diced Clinkers in a traditional baked cake would leave holes and make the cake unstable when the chocolate and candy melted in the cooking process.

Ingredients:

150g chocolate biscuits

70g butter

500g cream cheese

30g sugar

2 tsn gelatine

60ml water

200g milk chocolate

350g clinkers

240g thickened cream

Method:

Line a 23cm spring form baking tin with baking paper.

Place the biscuits in a food processor and blitz until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Melt the butter, add to the biscuits and pulse until well combine.

Press biscuit mix into the base of the tin then place in the fridge to firm.

Using electric beaters whisk the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Melt the chocolate and beat into the cheese mix until smooth.

Boil the water and mix the gelatine, using a fork to combine until the mix has no lumps and is silky.

Add the gelatine mix to the cheese mix and beat until well combine.

Clean the beaters and whisk the cream until peaks form.

Cut 250g of clinkers into medium sized pieces each so you have nice chunks and fold with the cream into the cheese mix.

Spoon over the chocolate base and leave in the fridge for at least 3 hours to set.

Once set remove from the tin.

Place 100g of clinkers in the food processor and blitz until the mix resembles breadcrumb consistency.

Roll the cake onto its side once set to coat sides of cake with the clinker mix, then sprinkle the remaining on top.

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After recently enjoying a thirst quenching cider while out at the pub one Friday sunny lunch it got me thinking of baking a cake with cider as the key ingredient.

This particular cider was a raspberry flavor but I wanted to trial a few flavor combos, focusing on traditional cider flavors as well as the raspberry one I was enjoying.

The experimenting in the kitchen included raspberry cider, pear cider and apple cider, in which I played around with grated apples, grated pears and raspberries as complementary ingredients to the alcohol.

After around 7 different cake variations I ended up completely satisfied with the long-shot winner of apple cider, raspberries, apples and caramel chew candy. The candy being a bit of a last minute addition to this recipe, in which was added to gave the extra unusual twist I was looking for, unsurprisingly working hand-in-hand with the apple it also worked with the raspberry.

A delicious almost pudding like cake, one bite and you will be going back for a second piece…or if you are like me a third!

Ingredients:

Cake:

135g butter, softened

100g brown sugar

3 eggs

2 small apples, peeled and cored (135g apple)

90g caramel chew candy

80ml apple cider

225g self raising flour

1+ 1/2 tsn baking powder

90g raspberries

Icing:

200ml apple or raspberry cider

100g caramel chew candy

90g butter, softened

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 170c degrees and line a 30cm cake tin with baking paper.

Whisk the butter and sugar with electric beaters for 5 minutes or until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition.

Grate the apple and add to the egg mix.

Dice the caramel chews into small pieces, add to the egg mix and stir until combine.

Pour the cider into the egg mix.

Sieve the flour and baking soda into the egg mix and whisk on low with electric beaters for 30 seconds or until just combine.

Add the raspberries and fold through the mix until just evenly combine.

Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack until cold.

Meanwhile make the icing by placing the 200ml of cider into a saucepan on a medium heat until reduced down to 80ml.

Add the 100g of caramel chews and whisk with a hand whisk off the heat until smooth and glossy.

Once the caramel mix has cool to room temperature whisk 100g of the caramel mix with the 90g butter with electric beaters until light and fluffy.

Cut the cake in half horizontally, spread the caramel icing onto the top of the bottom cake layer, top with the second layer.

Place the remaining caramel back on the saucepan until just lukewarm and pour over the top of the cake.

Serve and enjoy!

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I’m a creature of habit when it comes to food. Pretty much every morning I have the same breakfast of blueberries, seeds, granola, yoghurt, nuts and desiccated coconut. Occasionally I may use mixed berries instead of blueberries but this variation doesn’t last long.

Breakfast is probably my favorited meal of the day and my usual breakfast never fails to satisfy me. So it’s not surprising one day whilst having breakfast I got an idea….I would use my fav breakfast ingredients and turn them into a cake.

This cake could have completely been a flop (even with the combination of tasty complementary flavours), however resulted in a super moist bake that was as tasty as I had hoped.

So simple and quick to make, this recipe is literally putting ingredients into a bowl, stirring and placing in the oven – as easy as that!

Ingredients:

Cake:

45g dates

2 tsn chia seeds

100g flour

1 + ½ tsn baking powder

100g granola (mine had oats, nuts, seeds and coconut)

70g sugar

100g butter, at room temperature

2 eggs

80g blueberries

Frosting:

115g butter, at room temperature

80g strawberry jam

35g vanilla yoghurt

Extra:

15g granola (oats, nuts, seeds and coconut)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.

Dice up the dates into small pieces and place into a mixing bowl.

Add the chia seeds, flour, baking powder, granola and sugar to the dates. Stir until well combined.

Add the eggs and butter to the date dry mix and whisk with electric beaters for 5 mins until the mix is creamy and fluffy.

Add the blueberries and fold in until combined through the batter.

Pour the mix into the cake tin and sprinkle with the extra granola on top.

Bake the cake in the oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Place the cake on a cooling rack until cold.

Place all the frosting ingredients into a bowl and whisk with electric beaters until light and fluffy.

Cut the cake in half horizontally, placing the bottom layer onto a plate.

Top the bottom cake layer with the icing, then sandwich with the 2nd cake layer.

Enjoy!…YUM!

Note:

Using your fav store brought granola is prefectly fine (yu dont have to use the same granloa mix as me).

I used frozen blueberries but you can use fresh if you prefer.

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For a long time now (around 18 months) I have been attempting to make the ultimate amazing ‘Jaffa inspired’ treat.

I have gone through choc-orange flavoured mousse , focaccia, truffle balls, biscuits, mud-cake, pastries, flan…and the list goes on…Though some of these experimental sessions produced bakes that were not actually bad they were not absolutely amazing either, thus not good enough to post.

This sponge cake recipe was not part of the choc-orange original baking experimental sessions, I actually came up with this recipe a few months later as I wanted to turn my favorite (never fail) sponge recipe into a chocolate sponge to see if it would work (you don’t come across a good chocolate sponge very often so I thought I would challenge this).

When I made the sponge and was happy with the outcome I started thinking about some jam fillings that are a bit unusual (not the normal raspberry or strawberry jam options we typically see). As I had some marmalade left over from the choc-orange experiments I ended up opting for this. Once I spread the layers of jam with cream and sandwiched the cake layers together I was left with either a massive fail or new sponge recipe.

Next step was to drizzle with chocolate sauce, cut and devour. I must say the devouring part was not a difficult task at all.

Finally chocolate orange flavor combo success!

Ingredients:

Sponge:

2 tsn plain flour

½ tsn bi carbonate of soda

1 tsn cream of tartar

100g corn flour

30g cocoa powder

4 eggs

165g sugar

½ tsn vanilla essence

Filling:

300g thickened cream

2 tsn icing sugar

½ tsn vanilla essence

270g orange marmalade

Ganache:

100g dark chocolate, broken up

40g thickened cream

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190c degrees and line 3 x 20cm cake tins with baking paper.

Place the plain flour, bi carbonate or soda, cream of tartar, corn flour and cocoa powder into a bowl and sift 3 times.

Place the eggs and sugar in a bowl and using electric beaters whisk for 10 minutes on high speed.

Add the vanilla essence to the egg mix and beat for 1 more minute

Turn the beaters on low speed and add the flour mix, beating for 1 minute.

Spoon the mix evenly into the 3 cake tins and bake each cake for 20-25 minutes or until the sponges spring back when touched on the top.

Remove the tins from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes, cakes still in the tin.

Turn the cakes onto a cooling rack and leave until cold.

To make the filling whisk the cream, icing sugar and vanilla essence with electric beaters until peaks form.

To assemble place one cake layer on a plate and spoon the jam evenly onto this cake as well as a second cake.

Spoon the cream evenly on the top of the jam of both cakes.

Place the second filled cake onto the plated cake (cream side up) and top the cake off with the third/remaining (non-filled) cake layer.

To make the ganache, place the cream in a bowl and microwave until boiling.

Add the chocolate to the cream and leave for 1 minute.

Stir the chocolate and cream until glossy and thick.

Drizzle the chocolate ganache over the top of the cake.

Notes:

I dusted the top cake layer with icing sugar and cocoa powder before I drizzled the ganache for extra decoration.

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Recently I have gone cauliflower rice crazy (the current fav is with stock, coriander, mint, olive oil, falafels and tahini paste…yum!). Why I bring this up…savory dishes weren’t my only thought for utilising the cauliflower rice.

You will know that I have made many cakes with grains and vegetables as a core base ingredient, from pumpkin, zucchini and potato, to millet, quinoa and polenta. As cauliflower is a new one for me I of course had to start experimenting with this veggie in a sweet bake.

Using a past quinoa recipe as a base I started to test and learn with flavour and ingredient variations.

To keep on the ‘healthy’ theme I opted for a ‘sugar free’ frosting where I took my sticky date pudding recipe, coping the date prep and blitz with a loooot of cauliflower, cocoa powder and a little coconut oil for richness.

This cake is so moreish, in fact most people that trialled this cake saw it as more satisfying than a mud cake, with a better texture, taste and product.

Ingredients:

Cake:

350g cauliflower

100ml plain yoghurt

100g coconut oil

180g brown sugar

2 eggs

250g self-raising flour

80g cocoa powder

1/8 tsn salt

1 tsn lemon juice

180ml coconut cream

Frosting:

40g cocoa powder

50g coconut oil

140g dates

70ml water

Pinch salt

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 175c degrees and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.

Cut the cauliflower into chunks. Place cauliflower into a bowl and cover with hot water.

Cook the cauliflower in the microwave until just soft, drain and leave aside to cool.

Place the yoghurt, oil and sugar into a bowl and beat with electric beaters until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition.

In a separate bowl sieve the flour, cocoa and salt, stir to combine.

Place the cauliflower into a food processor and blitz until almost pureed.

Many many times I have used avocado as the base to a healthier alternative frosting for cakes. Additionally, I have made mousse, tarts and pies with avocado as the core filling ingredient. But, what I haven’t really experimented with is using avocado as a key ingredient within the cake itself.

Sour cream, mayonnaise, yoghurt, varieties of cheeses, even cordial have featured as a wet ingredient in my past baking experiments but avocado surprisingly was a new one for me.

To come up with an avo based recipe I played around with a ridiculous number of cake flavor combos. And by a number I mean 14 different variations from sourcream & onion chips with chocolate to rosemary chocolate & orange blossom, even vegemite & chocolate.

The outcome of chocolate was def a winner. The experiment of flavor profiles of strawberry and dates resulted in the standout cake, delivering a rich chocolate strawberry treat.

As avocado is full of good fats, omitting the amount of bad fat I thought it would be an interesting direction for the recipe to completely replace sugar via dates and jam (yes I know jam has sugar but majority of the sweetness is through the strawberries) and chocolate replaced by means of raw Dutch cocoa powder.

The end result is a satisfying and suprisingly addictive sweet treat.

Cake:

150g pitted dates

1 tsn bi-carb of soda

45g butter

100g avocado flesh (2/3 of 1 avocado)

2 eggs

1 tsn vanilla essence

¼ tsn salt

65ml milk

180g strawberry jam

225g self-raising flour

60g cocoa powder

Frosting:

130g avocado flesh (1 avocado)

20g cocoa powder

Pinch salt

1/2 tsn vanilla essence

70g strawberry jam

100g butter, softened

Extra:

130g strawberry jam

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.

Place the dates and 190ml water into a saucepan on a medium/high heat.

Once mix boils stir through the bi-carb of soda, set aside to cool completely.

Place the dates, butter, avocado, eggs, vanilla, salt, milk and strawberry jam into a food processor and blitz until well combine and smooth.

Transfer avocado mix into a bowl, sieve the flour and cocoa into the mix.

Fold all ingredients together until just combine.

Spoon the mix into the cake tin and place in the oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Place the cake on a cooling rack until cool.

Meanwhile make the frosting by placing all of the frosting ingredients into a food processor and blitzing until combine and fluffy.

Once the cake is cooled cut in half horizontally, place a cake layer on a plate cut side up, and spread with half the extra jam. Use the back of a spoon to push the jam into the cake. Repeat for the 2nd cake layer, leaving the layer on the bench, jam/sut side up.

Top the jam on layer 1 with 1/3rd of the frosting and repeat with the second layer. Sandwich the 1st cake layer with the 2nd cake layer, jam side down to have an unfrosted cake top with all frosting and jam in the center of the cake.

Top with the remaining 1/3rd frosting and enjoy!

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